Zenos

"A new legend is about to be born! Defeat Zenos in this new battle ranking event! ★Vanquish the Garlean Royal★"

- In-game description

Zenos is a Ranked "battle tower" event available in February 2020. It features duels against Zenos (Sicarius) (sort of).

However, as a new challenge, what attacks hit you are dependent on your Multiplayer Role. Yes, Multiplayer choices are affecting your Single Player battles!

Event Details

 * Ranking Event duration: February 22 - March 1, 2020
 * Event type: progressive Tower Battle

How to Participate

 * Select "Zenos" from the Act 2 world map -- its own red spot.
 * This event is only accessible after a player clears the Runic Temple in Chapter 1

Story
No story! Just kill him.

Gameplay
Play in this area works up a single chain of levels, from the beginning Abyss level up to the top Ragnarok level. As you work your way up the tower, the battles at each level will get progressively harder.

Each area has three battles:
 * 1) The first one is against fodder fiends (Dusts, Grudges, Dryads).
 * 2) The second one is against an Act 2 boss fiend.
 * 3) The third features a confrontation with Zenos.

Zenos is, , , and. Except in specific circumstances, Zenos has , but does not show it in his status bar.

Zenos will attack with abilities similar to Zenos (Sicarius), but with an entirely new mechanic for dodging his attacks:

When Zenos is preparing his Art... attacks, he cannot be killed. Reducing him to 1 HP will gain him, allowing his attack to hit on the next turn. You will still need to inflict 1 HP of damage to him afterward to defeat him.

If Zenos is going to cast Storm, Swell, Sword, then he will gain when he hits 50% HP. On his next turn, he conjures two swords alongside him, and gains for 3 turns while he prepares the attack. The swords can't be killed, but reducing them to 1HP each will gain them and greatly reduce the damage of the attack.

In the Phantasmic Loop, Zenos will use multiple abilities, so it's to your benefit to set different jobs on your Main Job and Sub-Job. Switch between them with Job Change Recast. Zeno also gains a, so you will need to work efficiently to defeat him.

Event Map
"A legatus from a far-off empire has flashed his blades on Palamecian soil. His goal is not to gain status or experience the thrill of the hunt, but to stand tall atop the battlefield, looking for someone worthy of his skill."

- World Map description

The region is the standard Tower of Trials -- one path with a staircase, leading up to the top at the 50th "Ragnarok" level. You cannot return to previous levels once they've been beaten.

After completing the Highest Level: Ragnarok, you enter the "Phantasmic Coil" areas. This is a set of 5 areas that repeat in an infinite loop, also with an increasing difficulty with each area finished. On these levels, there is no fifth Rental Card allowed, and if you lose, you cannot use s to continue. A Prize of x5 is handed out for each loop of 5 completed.

There are 15 areas in total, including the Phantasmic Coil, the Starting Area, and the shortcuts. There are 5 treasure chests. Since the treasure chest in the Phantasmic Coil regenerates on each pass, the region technically cannot be Completed.

Phantasmic Coil
The five levels after Ragnarok are set in an infinite loop, with a prize on the completion of the fifth area on each loop. Players cannot use s to continue the battle if they lose, and the fifth "rental" card is not available.

The Phantasmic Loop includes shortcuts. These allow the better players to skip ahead to the high-difficulty loops without needing to slog through the lower-level stuff. Completing a shortcut awards the s that would have been earned by going through those loops manually. Upon finishing the area, you're transported to The Phantasm as your starting point into the Phantasmic Loop. This is an irreversible jump -- once you complete one of the three initial areas, you're stuck on the Phantasmic Loop with that many Loops completed.
 * Novice starts you at Loop 1 (11 kills). No shortcut, no award.
 * Adept starts you at Loop 6 (31 kills), and x25
 * Master starts you at Loop 21 (106 kills), and x100

The skirmishes here have a pre-set collection of fiends, but after the 36th and 66th kill (?) they will change to other fiends. The third skirmish always remains as described.

Ranking Rewards
With the recent announcement of the game's impending shutdown, participation is very low, so anyone who completes all of the normal levels will easily make it within the top 10,000 players. The top 2,000 players will get s as a reward. These are used to open special high-end rewards in the Rift.

Notable Enemies

 * Zenos (Sicarius)

Reference

 * Mobius Final Fantasy News Page Announcement
 * Zenos superthread on Reddit